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Frequently Asked Questions: Achieving & Maintaining Permanency

• Questions and answers
• General resources
• Frequently requested information

Questions and answers

• How long do children stay in foster care?
  
  
• How is the decision to terminate parental rights made?
  
  
• A family member asked me to be a legal guardian for her children because she is having some serious problems and cannot care for them. What does that mean?
  
  
• What are the permanency outcomes for children leaving foster care?
  Of all children who exited foster care during fiscal year (FY) 2005, the latest year for which data are available:
  
  • 54 percent were reunified with their parent or primary caretaker
  • 18 percent were adopted
  • 11 percent went to live with another relative or guardian
  An additional 9 percent were emancipated or aged out of foster care, 2 percent were transferred to another agency, and 2 percent had run away from their foster care placement. The percentage of children reunited with family decreased by 3 percentage points between FY 2000 and FY 2005. Overall, the percentage of children exiting foster care to a permanent family (i.e., reunification, adoption, or living with relative or guardian) showed only small variations across the two periods. For more information, read Adoption & Foster Care Statistics.

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General resources

• How Does the Child Welfare System Work?
  (PDF - 342 KB)
  
  Also available in Spanish: ¿Cómo trabaja el sistema de bienstar infantile?
  (PDF - 148 KB)
  
  
• Adoption and Foster Care Statistics (AFCARS Reports)
  
  
• Child Welfare Outcomes 2003
  (PDF - 3410 KB)

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Frequently requested information

• State Laws on Making Permanency Plans for Children in Care
  Summaries of State laws on permanency planning for children in foster care.
  
  
• Concurrent Planning: What the Evidence Shows
  A review and synthesis of recently published research and selected program examples about concurrent planning. (PDF - 156 KB)
  
  
• Promising Practices in Reunification (PDF - 171 KB)
  Examines key components of reunification programs that appear to be achieving positive results.
  
  
• Kinship Caregivers and the Child Welfare System: A Factsheet for Families
  Types of kinship care, services for relative caregivers, and more. (PDF - 230 KB)
  
  
• Kinship Care/Grandparents Raising Grandchildren
  Contact information for organizations that provide information about kinship care and services for kinship caregivers.
  
  
• AdoptUsKids
  Promotes the recruitment and retention of adoptive families for children in foster care.
  
  
• Foster Parents Considering Adoption: A Factsheet for Families
  Provides information on the differences between foster care and adoption and explores the factors foster parents should consider when deciding whether to adopt children in their care. (PDF - 195 KB)
  
  

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Updated on December 7, 2007